An international, clinical research trial has shown that patients with diabetes whose multi-vessel coronary artery disease is treated with bypass surgery live longer and are less likely to suffer severe complications like heart attacks than those who undergo angioplasty.

Share This

An international, clinical research trial has shown that patients with diabetes whose multi-vessel coronary artery disease is treated with bypass surgery live longer and are less likely to suffer severe complications like heart attacks than those who undergo angioplasty.

Related Articles

The findings are published online November 5 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study -- co-led by researchers at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital and Toronto's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network (UHN) -- is known as the FREEDOM trial.

"We've shown that bypass surgery saves one extra life for every 20 patients with diabetes who are treated for multi-vessel coronary artery disease," says lead author, Dr. Michael Farkouh, Chair of the Peter Munk Centre of Excellence in Multinational Clinical Trials, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, UHN.

Five years after treatment, patients who received coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) had lower combined rates of strokes, heart attacks, and deaths (18.7 percent) than those who underwent angioplasty (26.6 percent). Strokes were slightly more common among the CABG group (5.2 percent) than in the angioplasty group (2.4 percent), however, more angioplasty patients died from any cause (16.3 percent) than CABG patients (10.9 percent).

"Based on these results, we believe that coronary artery bypass surgery should be standard therapy for the millions of patients worldwide with diabetes who have more than one diseased vessel," says Dr. Farkouh, who is the Chair of Cardiology Research and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

Coronary artery disease is the buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries. It's the most common form of heart disease and can lead to chest pain, heart failure and heart attack. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, almost 2.4 million Canadians live with diabetes.

A total of 1,900 patients were enrolled at 140 international centers from 2005-2010. All participants had diabetes and more than one diseased artery, and 83% had three-vessel disease. Half the participants received bypass surgery and the other group received angioplasty -- which includes percutaneous coronary intervention and drug-eluting stents. The study followed patients for a median of four years and a minimum of two. Patients in both streams of the study were prescribed optimal medical management for control of high LDL cholesterol, high blood sugar levels and high blood pressure. The result assessed all-cause mortality, non-fatal heart attacks, and non-fatal stroke.

"This study will challenge the prevailing ambiguity between bypass surgery and angioplasty for multi-vessel coronary artery disease," says Dr. Farkouh. "Bypass surgery saves lives and reduces the chance of complications in a high-risk group of patients with diabetes."

The study focused on diabetes because patients with diabetes have cardiac events more often than patients who do not have diabetes, and require more follow-up care than other patients. Cardiovascular disease is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of early death among people with this disease -- about 65 percent of people with diabetes die from heart disease and stroke. Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or suffer a stroke than people without diabetes.

"The benefits of bypass surgery are so significant that they're what you'd expect to see between a patient who is and a patient who isn't taking medication to control cholesterol," says Dr. Farkouh.

More From ScienceDaily

More Health & Medicine News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015  Fewer than half of the physicians trained in the United States in 2013 received formal education or training on the subject of exercise, according to new research. "There are immense medical benefits ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Memory and as well as connections between brain cells were restored in mice with a model of Alzheimer's given an experimental cancer drug, researchers report. "With this treatment, cells under ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Increasing state alcohol taxes could prevent thousands of deaths a year from car crashes, say researchers, who found alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes decreased after taxes on beer, wine and ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Alcoholism takes a toll on every aspect of a person's life, including skin problems. Now, a new research report helps explain why this happens and what might be done to address it. "The clinical ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A new population of 'memory' immune cells has been discovered by scientists, throwing light on what the body does when it sees a microbe for the second time. This insight, and others like it, will ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Coronary heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States, are diseases associated with heightened platelet reactivity. A new study in humans suggests an underlying ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A new study had researchers seeking answers to why the therapeutic benefit afforded by SSRIs was so limited in children and teenagers. If researchers can uncover the biological mechanisms preventing ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A drug being developed to treat osteoporosis may also be useful for treating osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, a rare but potentially debilitating bone disorder that that is present ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  It is possible to quantify and classify the effects of different diseases on the activity of intestinal bacteria, new research demonstrates for the first time. Human intestinal flora, known as ... full story

Featured Videos

Solitair Device Aims to Takes Guesswork out of Sun Safety

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 31, 2015)  The Solitair device aims to take the confusion out of how much sunlight we should expose our skin to. Small enough to be worn as a tie or hair clip, it monitors the user&apos;s sun exposure by taking into account their skin pigment, location and schedule. Matthew Stock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Soda, Salt and Sugar: The Next Generation of Taxes

Washington Post (Mar. 30, 2015)  Denisa Livingston, a health advocate for the Dinι Community Advocacy Alliance, and the Post&apos;s Abby Phillip discuss efforts around the country to make unhealthy food choices hurt your wallet as much as your waistline.
Video provided by Washington Post

S. Leone in New Anti-Ebola Lockdown

AFP (Mar. 28, 2015)  Sierra Leone imposed a three-day nationwide lockdown Friday for the second time in six months in a bid to prevent a resurgence of the deadly Ebola virus. Duration: 01:17
Video provided by AFP

Related Stories

Mar. 16, 2015  Despite the advent of a new generation of stents, patients with multiple narrowed arteries in the heart who received coronary artery bypass grafting fared better than those whose arteries were opened ... full story

Nov. 13, 2013  New research shows most patients with diabetes and obesity who undergo gastric bypass not only experience remission of their diabetes and lose significant weight, but they also reduce their risk of ... full story

Oct. 30, 2013  Persons with Alzheimer’s disease suffer from ischaemic heart diseases more frequently than others, yet they undergo related procedures and surgery less frequently than persons with no diagnosed AD, ... full story

Oct. 15, 2013  For patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease in more than one artery, treatment with coronary artery bypass graft surgery provided slightly better health status and quality of life between ... full story

Sep. 12, 2013  People with diabetes have a 30 percent less chance of dying if they undergo coronary artery bypass surgery rather than opening the artery through angioplasty and inserting a stent, a new study has ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.